“Born Carlos Felix Cillario in San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina, he went to Italy in 1923 where he studied the violin and composition at the Bologna Conservatorio. He made his conducting debut in 1942 in Odessa. Upon his return to Italy, he founded the Bologna Chamber Orchestra in 1946 and reserved a major portion of his time to opera, conducting at the opera houses of Rome, Turin, Florence, Milan, etc. He quickly began appearing outside Italy, notably in Athens, Berlin, Oslo and Paris. The year 1961 saw his debuts in England, at the Glyndebourne Festival in L'ELISIR D'AMORE, and in the United States at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, later conducting THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, LA CENERENTOLA, LA FAVORITE AND LA BOHEME. In 1964, he made his debut at the Royal Opera House in London at the request of Maria Callas, conducting her now famous series of TOSCA performances with Tito Gobbi. Debuts at the San Francisco Opera followed in 1970 (TOSCA) and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1972 (LA SONNAMBULA). He became one of the favorite conductors of Montserrat Caballé, conducting at her Covent Garden debut in 1972 (LA TRAVIATA with Nicolai Gedda and Victor Braun), in a London concert performance of CATERINA CORNARO, and shortly after in an RCA studio recording of NORMA. Carlo Felice Cilliaro stands as one of the most singer-friendly of all conductors, a reassuring and solid presence both in the opera house and in the recording studio.”

"The word that best describes [Munteanu’s] singing is ‘delicacy’. The voice is a leggiero in the best sense of that category. It is a light tenor, suffused with an attractive, flicker vibrato, and capable of melting sweetness of tone. He reminds one of Schipa….This is singing of rare grace and fastidious taste, and always accomplished with charm and a real ‘face’….To represent this aristocrat of a tenor in your collection is precisely what record collecting is all about."